A Lost Cause...
by untitled
Summary: Eastranged by principle, bound by love, the story of Scarlett's daughter, Ella, her best friend (Ashley's kid, Beau) & her family's worst enemy, Michael Bullock... Where what you think is right and honorable would turn out to be your biggest mistake.
1. Hell's Afire

Disclaimer: If only my name happened to be Margaret Mitchell. I wish.  
  
Authors Note: If you didn't read the book (of which this is based on) Ella is Scarlett's child by Frank Kennedy . . . Please REVIEW!! ; )  
  
  
  
Her friends and all her beaux never noticed it, but Ella wasn't really beautiful. Her chestnut mop of hair was wavy, and it always looked windswept and out of place, and her deep-set dark brown eyes clashed with her delicate features which she got from her late father, Frank Kennedy. But as unusual her face was, it turned millions of heads nonetheless. She took pride in her looks, and Ella never realized that she wasn't the most beautiful girl in the county, and that state of mind was something that she got from her mother, Scarlett.  
  
People will never understand her.  
  
Ella Butler. Ella Kennedy. Ella actually had tried Ella Hamilton and Ella Robillard, but she stuck to Ella O'Hara.  
  
It sounded much better.  
  
Rhett Butler never cared much about Ella, for she was a stupid capricious little girl too much like her ignorant mother, Scarlett, but there was a disparity. Scarlett was headstrong and determined, while Ella just didn't care much about anything that really matters (which is somewhat like Scarlett, if you think about it) and her heart was too soft and sentimental. That's why when Ella decided (at the ripe young age of fifteen) to drop the infamous 'Butler' in her name, Rhett only screamed and shouted for about 2 hours . . . While Scarlett was undoubtedly amused by the whole ordeal, she agreed that Ella O'Hara was much more becoming. Ella sighed, and she remembered when her mother once said that Ella was so much like her Aunt Suellen, but ever since Scarlett heavily scolded Ella for complaining about cold ham, her bad habit of nagging has lessened a little . . . Well, a lot.  
  
Around Scarlett, anyway.  
  
"I think the blue one looks better on you, Ella." Scarlett said disapprovingly at the pink dress Ella had on. Ella twirled around a critical Scarlett and once again faced the large oval mirror, her fuchsia petticoat rustling noisily beneath her new gown trimmed with dark pink lace.  
  
Ella stuck her chin up and made a stubborn face. "I like this one just the way it is." Ella reached out for a small heavily carved wooden box, where she kept her trusty rouge. She brought out a small gold case, and rustled towards her dresser.  
  
"Ella!" Scarlett exclaimed, scandalized. "A young girl of sixteen, wearing rouge! Where did you get that?"  
  
Ella rudely rolled her deep-set brown eyes and sucked her cheeks in, ready to apply the pink concoction where it was needed.  
  
Ella stood against the gleaming pink sunset of Tara, was making her baby pink gown shimmer beautifully, and made her blonde hair look shinier against the background. Scarlett watched her, expertly applying some rouge when she was told she wasn't allowed to do so. Ella was never a stubborn mule when she was a child, but as the girl grew up, she became hardheaded and at times ridiculous in whatever she did. Scarlett remembered how she was such an ugly baby; how people thought she looked like boy, but now . . . well; now she has become the belle of the county, just as Scarlett had once been. Although Ella wasn't truly beautiful, no one had realized that fact. Ella's straight blonde hair was silky and at times very limp; her deep brown eyes like her father's were scary and looked deep inside you. She inherited Scarlett's lethal charm but didn't inherit her business sense.  
  
Ella finished applying the rouge (which she had secretly stolen from Christine, Suellen's child) and faced her mother for approval.  
  
Scarlett looked up from the dress she was mending and into Ella's fetching face. She smiled despite her obvious disapproval. Ella did look beautiful and she couldn't lie about that fact. Ella always had a way of knowing when anyone was fibbing. "You look lovely, dear. Sweep them all of their feet."  
  
Ella giggled at how her mother always knew exactly what her intentions were. Ella had been invited to a small rendezvous organized by her best friend, Lucie Lynn Tarleton, where she knew that there would be tons of boys where she could practice her expert flirting skills. "Although I hear the Bullocks would be there. " She said unhappily as she tied the pink velvet ribbon attached to her wide-brimmed straw hat.  
  
Scarlett scowled at the thought of the Bullocks, and how unlucky she was that they were her neighbors now. After the war was all over and the reconstruction was finished, The former governor and his family had moved to the south, and right beside Tara!! They had supposedly 'renewed' and are now accepted by society (as they were once often sneered at and were greatly disliked in Atlanta), but not by the Butlers. While everyone had become close friends with the Bullocks, Scarlett just couldn't stand for it. The Butler's were known for their dislike towards the Bullocks all over the South. "What a shame." Scarlett stood up and turned towards the great grandfather clock in Ella's large over decorated room. "You are going to be late, dear. You must hurry."  
  
Ella nodded and hurriedly went into her stepfather's room. "Will you bring me to the Tarleton's, father? Please?"  
  
Rhett looked at her through his glasses and got up from a lavish velvet armchair setting is book down. "Wear a shawl, Ella." He said simply. "And wipe all that paint of your face."  
  
Ella's eyes widened alarmingly at her stepfather's meanness, and turned towards the stables, hopefully to find Abraham free to drive her to Lucie's. As she started down the large blue stairs, she felt Rhett's strong arm grab hers. She faced him and she frowned deeply. "Yes?" She hissed sharply.  
  
Rhett raised his eyebrow, and pulled his glass off his nose. "Don't just walk away from me, Ella." Then Rhett smiled mockingly, his white teeth emerging under his bushy mustache, contrasting with his olive-skinned face. "And besides, you know that Abraham is always out with Christine or your Aunt Suellen."  
  
Ella just stuck her chin up even more.  
  
"Lets go."  
  
Ella looked behind Rhett's shoulder and into Scarlett's smiling face. Her mother winked and Ella nodded happily, excited to be going to her long awaited get- together. "Thank you." Ella said with a fake sweetness that was too obvious.  
  
************  
  
"Thanks you again for bringing me, father." Ella said sweetly.  
  
Rhett nodded and whipped his fine red mare, urging it to go. "Be home by dinner-time!!" He called out as his voice faded.  
  
Ella stood at the long entrance and gazed up at the big red brick house that Ella always thought was inferior compared to the beautiful white house of Tara. As she walked towards the house, she stopped in her tracks upon hearing an irritating masculine voice that drawled on like a song that was sung terribly out of tune.  
  
"Well if it isn't my favorite lady, Ella Butler—I mean, O'Hara."  
  
Ella rolled her brown eyes and faced Michael Bullock, who leaned against a large towering oak tree smoking a cigar, his black hair falling over his turquoise eyes, Oh, how that lock of hair always annoyed Ella, and she always said she "would give anything just to wipe that know-it-all look on Michael Bullocks face and tuck his hair behind his ears."  
  
"Why, don't I get a hello?" He walked towards Ella, who gripped her purple umbrella tightly, her knuckles turning white. "You seem mad, Ms. O'Hara. Why is this?"  
  
"Any sight of you makes my blood boil until I can't take the heat." Ella said sharply, her chin stuck out proudly.  
  
Michael took a pace closer to Ella, and shook his head pitifully. "Why must we always fight? Why can't the Bullocks and the Butlers, dare I say it, make peace?"  
  
Ella pursed her red lips together, and loosened her death grip on her tortured umbrella. "Peace? Peace. I hate that word, as I hate hell, all Bullocks, and you!"  
  
"Clever."  
  
Ella glared at him and turned on her heel, dramatically leaving Michael all alone.  
  
"Hells afire when that woman leaves the house."  
  
From Moi: Hope you like it… ; ) Oh, and I didn't make the line "Peace? Peace. I hate the word… blah blah blah." Its actually: "Peace? Peace. I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montague's, and thee." From R + J Oh, and DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!! Love ya… ; ) 


	2. Ladies vs. Gentlemen

DISCLAIMER: Sue me, and you are not going to wake up the following morning.  
  
From Margaret Mitchell number 893472357: Hey!! Please, please review!!!!!! I am not ashamed to say that reviews are what drive me to live.  
  
"Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho . . ." Larissa Hilton cheerfully listed the states that were allowing ladies to vote. Larissa's mother, Cathleen Hilton, profoundly believed that women should vote; therefore, she was a suffragist. Scarlett believed in women's voting rights as well because she was as smart and clever as any male politician out there, but Scarlett wasn't in the suffragist movement because she knew the dangerous consequences. It was like being in the Ku Klux Clan: A group of honorable men (this time women, obviously) who were defending a good cause, but were to be killed for it. It was a miracle that Larissa's mother hasn't been arrested for "disrupting peace" and thrown into prison, just like a lot of her brave suffragist friends. The young men broke into a murmur of disagreement, because all men believed that it was unwomanly to be so outspoken, and well… intellectual. Clyde Fontaine spoke loudly above the rest, standing up from the wooden oak armchair and waving his hands for silence. Everyone cleared his or her throats and Ella rustled in her cushion in the very center of the conversation. "It will be high time before the ladies start to vote here in Georgia!" Clyde said urgently, his light brown eyes growing into large circles at such a ridiculous thought. He would say much more if only he wasn't in the presence of ladies, and very smart ones like Lucie Lynn, who was practically a suffragist due to all the support and money she generously gives them animals.  
  
Michael nodded and looked around the circle, his turquoise eyes leaving Ella's for a moment. "That's right!! Who knows who they might elect, or worse, as they say the will do, elect a female president?!" Michael laughed at the thought then stopped hastily, when greeted by the blazing eyes of Larissa, Ella, Lucie Lynn, and Helena. His remark struck a cord in the ladies who were just sitting quietly while the gentlemen were openly insulting them. Ella rose to her feet, her dark brown waves jumping up with her, and her brown eyes livid at all the men, but mostly at Michael, just because of the mere fact that he was a Bullock. "And what is wrong with a female president?!" She challenged, glaring at Michael, who looked back, at her but dared not to smile mockingly. He saw ladies as mere children who just cared for the house and had no knowledge of what the outside world was like, well, he saw all ladies in this light except for Ella who was like a devil who landed here on earth. Ella wasn't really at all interested in the suffragist movement, it bored her to tears, but her mother believed in it (even if she said it bored her to tears as well) and no one was going to insult her mother's beliefs in front of her daughter!! Note while Ella has breath in her body!!  
  
"Everything is wrong with a female president!" He said jokingly as if stating an obvious fact.  
  
Lucie Lynn sprang up and along with her sprung all the other ladies who had brains and minds of their own. The other ladies who have no clue what suffragists were, and if they were a new kind of fruit or animal, were just trying to quiet down the screaming ladies who directed all their anger to Michael Bullock. They were not sworn enemies with the Bullocks, but it was Michael who spoke of such a rude thought, even if all the ladies knew that that was what the other men were thinking as well. "Why do you think it's so feminine to be so illogical?" Helena Fontaine said loudly, and Clyde blushed, because he was aware that his sister was much more logical than he.  
  
Michael Bullock actually had the gall to roll his pretty round eyes, "The gentlemen think that it isn't womanly to be so outspoken,"  
  
Michael looked like he was about to say more, but stopped when he saw Ella's lovely face red with rage. She looked ready to kill all men who agreed.  
  
"Maybe its because you are afraid that others will find out that your sisters, your friends, or maybe your wives are smarter than you!!" Lucie Lynn said bravely, but she felt that she should apologize for such uncouth actions; even if she knew what she said was the truth. Everyone: All the young gentlemen, the pretty little ladies sat back quietly in the library, their little hands who knew enough work and hardships as their parents did, folded primly on their laps. Ella biting her lip, and Lucie Lynn on the verge of tears. All the respectable children of Atlanta society, whose families found solace in the countryside, were thinking about Lucie Lynn's statement, and the gentlemen bothered and troubled, the tension was thick enough to cut with a butter knife, and the ladies knew they were acting like white trash, all of them. For this they felt guilty and disgraced. Larissa stood up slowly, and smiled at her beau, Jim Tarleton, Jr. then at everyone else. She tucked her auburn hair behind her ears, and spoke softly, so soft and musical it sounded like she was humming, but all the fine ladies and gentlemen of South Georgia in that cozy spacious library heard her, and they heard the words that all of them needed and wanted to hear.  
  
"We are sorry."  
  
And with that statement everyone hugged and the ladies erupted into tears behind their linen handkerchiefs, even the ladies who didn't take part in the heated argument, and the gentlemen patted each other on the back. Everyone had made amends except two people.  
  
Michael Bullock and Ella Butler.  
  
  
  
***************  
  
From Me: You know it makes me so mad… The thought of women not voting… it insults me!! I'm sorry, the events about the suffragists happen around 1914, and this is 12 years after GWTW… very sorry I had to mix it up!! Just a filler, guys… . ; ) I hate boring little fillers, but you need them. And don't forget to review!!!!!!!! The third chapter will be up and running VERY soon if you review!!! ; ) 


	3. Beau + Ella

DISCLAIMER: If I wrote Gone With The Wind, I would make sure you knew it.  
  
Authors note: REVIEW. ; ) and thanks to WindyChicky for reviewing twice… ; )  
  
Ella walked up the gray concrete steps leading into Beau's towering house in Twelve Oaks. After the reconstruction, Ella's Uncle Ashley had fixed Twelve Oaks with the money he collected from the mill (and ironically, a little help from Rhett…) and it had its homey feeling once again, the glamour that left with the war has returned.  
  
But the new lifestyle nowadays wasn't as peaceful and secure as it had been before the war. Well, maybe because of the fact that there was STILL a war going on, but it was America against the rest of the world, not the rest of the world against Ella. And It didn't affect Ella and any of her lovely dresses, so everything was fine in the Country Society's eyes. Yet, There was a little movement called Being-a-Suffragist-and-getting-killed-in-the- process, and there were more women landing in jail, more rowdy rallies happening (mostly in New York, though), more mothers realizing they should fight for this cause as well, and more husbands cursing this damned "lost cause" and threatening for divorces. Even if Ella wouldn't admit it to anyone, even to Beau or her own mother (ESPECIALLY her own mother), Ella truly agreed with the men that this was a lost cause. Of course, she still tried to defend it to save her face, but she really didn't believe in any of it. Thoughts of this topic reminded her of Lucie Lynn's "crush" (As Scarlett told Ella was the proper address), her ill-mannered act of just storming out, and Michael Bullock. All these thoughts put a scowl on Ella's face (particularly the latter), but she put it all aside. "I'll think about it all tomorrow." She said out loud, starting her way up the white steps, pleased to be seeing the face of her best friend once again.  
  
*********  
  
  
  
"But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."  
  
  
  
Beau's sharp gray eyes looked up from his novel, Romeo and Juliet, which was one of his mother's favorites, and smiled knowingly at the sound of rustling petticoats and livid muttering of some sort. He heard the heavy wooden door slam and he set his tatty book down on the new blue velvet settee. Beau brought out his grandfather's gold watch and sighed. It read four o' clock. This could only mean that Ella had gotten into a heated argument with one of the Bullocks, as she had done many times before.  
  
"Beau?? Beau?? Are you here?" Ella screamed, practically making the whole house shake.  
  
"You can keep it down, Ella!" Beau laughed and greeted her on the stair landing. "My father is asleep."  
  
Ella nodded "I HATE HIM!" She screamed, not lowering her voice at all.  
  
Beau's eyes widened. "My father?"  
  
Ella gave him a look of hate and Beau tilted his head mockingly. "Ah, so it's a 'him'? Which one? Adrian? William? Or that Michael?"  
  
Ella walked towards the living room and sighed noticeably. "Oh, I don't know. They all look the same to me."  
  
Beau laughed again. "Would you want some tea? Of course I would prefer some brandy…"  
  
"Tea would be fine, Beau." Ella said sharply.  
  
"So tell me what those damned Bullocks did this time?"  
  
Ella opened her mouth to scold Beau but Beau stopped her shortly.  
  
"… and no, I won't apologize for that." Beau smiled as he went into the kitchen to fix tea.  
  
Ella smiled gratefully. This was why Beau was one of Ella's most beloved friends… He didn't feel faint at the sight of her face, he didn't stammer and act stupid when Ella was speaking to him, and Ella could just about tell him anything. Beau wasn't like any of the other men Ella knew. He was one of the few who didn't want to marry Ella and he wasn't set on impressing her, like the Hiltons, Fontaines, or the Tarletons…  
  
At least, that was the mask of deception Beau wore.  
  
Beau drank a small swig of brandy and watched Ella from the corner of his eye. Ella was so fine looking, but she was also so ignorant like a true lady, and yet kindly forthright like a gentleman. Beau watched Ella sing to herself (and mind you, Ella has a horrible voice, but the fact that it's Ella's makes all the difference) and mindlessly stroke her tresses, if only Ella knew how Beau felt, now, THAT would make all the difference. Beau set his glass of brandy down and brought in a tray of tea for Ella, and the rest of the afternoon was spent on Suffragist movements and trashing Michael Bullock…  
  
When Ella had left (along with a bucket full of tears, due to the remembrance of her Aunt Melanie…) Beau started reading his hardback again.  
  
  
  
"My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me that I must love a loathed enemy."  
  
  
  
********** 


End file.
